Wednesday, December 16, 2009

That'll be $1,500. Surprise!

So, I have to get a condominium declaration and all of its amendments from the Recorder's Office. Generally, assuming you don't want it certified and there aren't a ton of amendments and plats, it's going to be in the ballpark of $100-$200. However, if an unsuspecting client asks for a certified copy of a declaration that does have a lot of stuff attached, they are in for quite the monetary surprise. Here's my phone call to the Recorder's Office checking on the docs and the ensuing conversation with Attorney 3:

Me: Are my docs ready yet?
Recorder: Not all of them. We have five of the nine.
Me: Can you ballpark how much it's going to cost so far?
Recorder: Well, for the five we have, it's going to be....$750...plus four more with plats...
Me: Ahahahahaha.
Recorder: What?
Me: That's fantastic.

Me: Hey, the docs aren't all ready yet. Wanna guess how much the price is already?
Attorney 3: Do I?
Me: $750
Attorney 3: Ahahahaha
Me: It gets better. That's only five out of nine documents. This is going to be well over $1,000.
Attorney 3: Nice.

That doesn't even include the time I'm going to bill for going over to the Recorder's Office, the time Attorney 3 is going to bill for handing this off to me, or the cost of making a copy of the docs for our office. Unsuspecting clients are the funniest kind of clients.